2007-05-30

Prozac in a Riker Mount

Riker mounts are science specimen display boxes used to display butterflies and other items of scientific interest (in disciplines like lepidoptery and coleopterology). Here, they are used by artist Steve Lodefink to display a blister pack of green and yellow Prozac capsules.

"PROZAC 20 mg capsules circa. 1995" declares a typewritten, yellowed label under the pills, looking as though it could be under a beetle or a shell. Critics say the pills in a Riker mount lend a [Douglas] Couplandesque sensibility of pop culture as art. I don't know, I'm all for industrial design and packaging, but would prefer it promotes medication adherence. Science meeting art, though, is great.

Either way, the Prozac capsules are a contentious art and mental health conversation piece, simply by hanging on a wall in the older scientific context of a Riker mount. "With the addition of a Riker mount, a packet of pills becomes a commentary on late 20th century excesses in cosmetic psychopharmacology."